32 weeks, 2 days

Baby Update

By now, the baby weighs somewhere around 4 lbs and is about 18ish inches long. It's continuing to gain somewhere around .5 lbs per week to fatten up :) Apparently it's movements are going to start slowing down because it's running out of room.

The baby is a lot more responsive now . . . I can wake it up by tapping on my belly and it will wiggle around a little bit. It's getting the hiccups once a day or every other day or so, which I don't like. I've always heard pregnant women say that they love it when the baby gets the hiccups . . . but to me it feels like any annoying muscle twitch. I really like it when the baby is moving around a lot (mostly at night, I think it will be a night owl) and I can watch my belly shift all over the place.

31 weeks

I really have nothing interesting to say. Here's a run-of-the-mill pregnancy update:

I'm starving and slightly afraid of gaining 30 lbs in the next 9 weeks. 2 weeks ago I nearly panicked when I gained 3 lbs in one week---but then the next week I lost nearly a pound, so it still evened out to about 1 lb per week. I know that I shouldn't worry about it, but I don't want to end up trying to deliver a 10 lb baby. (As of week 30 I had gained 25 ish lbs.)

Oh, by the way, I don't tell the little baby ticker at the top of the screen what to say. It just comes up automatically (in case you were wondering how I came up with these weekly quotes).

Baby Update

The baby is getting bigger and moving around like crazy (it's now around 17-18 inches long and weighs 3.5 lbs). It now gets the hiccups! I feel kind of bad for it . . . sometimes hiccups hurt. It gains about half a lb per week from now on, which is good because I'm starving. Seriously, I've been so hungry for the past couple of days. The only thing stopping me from eating constantly is the miserable heartburn that hits if I eat too much at a time.

I haven't really had any swelling (although my feet are magically bigger and I can only wear Crocs) or contractions yet (thankfully). However, the midwife is concerned about the long hours that I have at work. Apparently if you work more than 44 hours a week at an active job, the chances of premature labor increase. We work a little over 50 hours a week, so she said that I need to either cut back or lay down at work. It sounds silly, but I guess laying down helps fight gravity or something . . . so now I have to lay down at work from time to time :)

30 wks, 3 days

I'm really, really tired. I pulled my back on Thursday and I feel like a big, growing blob. No time to write more tonight, but here are some updated nursery pictures after our productive weekend:

We finished the border (and the long thing is a hanging growth chart)

Dave examining the crib box:

The glider (& a little of the ottoman):

The crib. I really love this crib. I would kind of like to sleep in it myself.

30 weeks along now--3/4 of the way there. I'll try to post more soon.

29 weeks

The nursery is still a work-in-progress. Today we put up one long wall of the border---borders are hard work! It's the type of job that takes a lot of planning and forethought---these are not Dave's strengths. There is no doubt in my mind that had I left him in there alone he would have wet the entire roll, started to put it up . . . realized it was crooked . . . stared out the window a minute to think of how to fix it . . . noticed that the window was dirty . . . left to get the toolkit to take the window down and clean it . . .etc. 2 hours later the room would have no windows, the border would be half hung up (crookedly) pand he would be re-arranging the toolbox alphabetically. (**if you think that I am exaggerating at all, please view the evidence at the end of this post**)

We had to wet a section, then try to smooth it on so that there were no air bubbles, it was in a straight line, and it wasn't pulling or tearing. Then we started again with another section. I think by the time we were done I must have looked like a junkie, complete with flushed skin, sweat & shaking hands. No pictures of me during this loveliness--but here's the section we put up, and one of Dave (who obviously wasn't as high strung about it as I was).

Oh, this is where we found Layla when we came home from getting coffee the other day. I resisted the urge to scream at her long enough to take this picture. This tendency might be interesting after the baby is born---do you think it will send mixed messages if I tell the baby to smile for the camera before yelling at it when it's in trouble?



And here's me and the big belly at 28.5 weeks. It's really getting basketball-esque and moving a lot. It's somewhat entertaining to watch my belly move around---like a big bowl of jello.

Baby Update

This week the baby weighs about 2.5 pounds and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. I have my next midwife appointment on Wednesday, and we were able to re-arrange the schedule at school a little bit so that Dave can come to this one too. He hasn't been to an appointment in a long time, so it will be really nice to have him join in. The appointment mostly consists of weighing and measuring me, so I feel a bit like a farm animal.

***This is what happens when Dave is in charge***

We are in the process of making 5 pans of brownies for the kids tomorrow (6th grade is taking a state math test). I'm in the living room writing this blog entry and he's in the kitchen, allegedly cutting up the first 3 trays of brownies so that we can use the pans again. I walk towards the kitchen, he is laughing so hard that he's in tears, and this is what I see:

I have no idea how he did this. He tried to lie about it but he keeps giggling. We may never know the truth.